Star Trek: 10 Moments That Confirm J/C (Janeway & Chakotay)
To ship or to ship the Voyagers' most ship-worthy duo: there is no question.
There's little time like the present for all things J/C. Demand has remained pretty much constant, but now, an increase in supply has lowered the cost of shipping. With all the glorious Janeway/Chakotay goodness we've been treated to in Star Trek: Prodigy's second season, there is simply a lot more to buy about the relation-ship.
Nothing is ever that simple, however, especially with affairs of the heart, and added to that, the affairs of space, the Delta Quadrant, and not least of Star Trek's first lead female captain, where double standards applied. Kate Mulgrew herself is on record as "having put her foot down" at the time to the Star Trek: Voyager executives about any romance with Chakotay, for fear of losing a degree of command credibility as Captain with the target audience, a fact the likes of Kirk and Picard never had to consider.
Mulgrew also had a hand in guiding J/C in season two of Prodigy towards a stage "beyond a love relationship," as showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman told CinemaBlend. Indeed, the ties that now bind Janeway and Chakotay cannot be summarised or reduced to a basic romance. Theirs is a connection that has stood the test of time and time travel. And sure, we still might not have the absolute proof that they are a couple, but that form has always been the function J/C. Confirmation will have to come otherwise, through interpretation, of a look, a phrase, or the subtle temporal nuances of a birthday gift.
It may have taken rather a long time, but then again, aren't good things worth a delay or two? Let's see, based on the evidence, if it really was worth waiting for J/C after all!
10. The Knots (And The Nots) Of Knots
Little less says prelude to romance than deadly disease, plasma storms, and shrieking spider monkey. At least they had the bathtub, with plans for a boat! Whatever the weather, the microbe, and the fauna, 'New Earth' became a new home, and Resolutions became a pivotal moment for the shipping of J/C, stranded, as they were, from ship.
The semi-permanent camping trip with all the 24th century mod cons was the perfect way to explore the brewing unsaid between the now no longer Captain and her now no longer first officer, both theoretically freer in that environment to explore their feelings than, say, in the middle of a staff briefing.
As related in Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration, viewers at the time had already begun to "latch on" to an implicit attraction between Janeway and Chakotay, a "flirtation" which the writers had "started to subtly play up". However, for Resolutions writer/executive producer Jeri Taylor, the episode was, definitionally speaking, meant to resolve the matter for the characters, that is "specifically to show that the relationship was not going to happen". Nevertheless, an early idea for Resolutions, pitched by writer/producer Ken Biller, as detailed in Cinefantastique, vol. 28, no. 4-5, would have taken J/C even further through a time travel plot in which the pair would have aged 40 years and had "a whole family". By the end of the actual episode, it was back to business as usually unusual aboard Voyager, their feelings for each other having seemingly been left down on the planet along with the house.
Whatever the nots, however, the highly suggestive massage that led from "My knots are getting knots" was difficult to ignore for anyone so much as glancing at the screen. There was then resolution of a different kind when Chakotay clarified his feelings, if through parable, to a Janeway in need of "parameters". Ultimately, he was devoted to her, for she had saved him from himself.